Where My Demons Hide
by mokitsu
Summary: When Don awakes to find his city destoryed, he isn't particullary happy. And when two dracanae attack him, well don't even mention that. He is taken to a camp, until he kills a god. Now, he has not only to keep that a secret, but to try to keep it a secret from the itenty that knows it,while trying to find the Pandora's Box from the house of the Gods, to prevent the Apocalypse.
1. The Death Of A Star

**~►The Death of A Star◄~**

When I woke up, I didn't sense anything was wrong. I didn't know what had happened while I was asleep. I didn't know that a raging hurricane with the same name as a Primordial God, the Ancient god of the Sky in the Greek mythology had passed on the city I was sleeping in. I didn't know that it had destroyed every building to the ground. I didn't know that I was the only survivor. How could I? I was asleep. Looking back into my life, I realized I didn't really know that much of it. I didn't know who my father was. My mom mysteriously died when I was twelve. I had to move to live with my grandparents in Rangherd. I was forced to live with them, to go to school, to have good grades. After all I've been through, after everyone I've lost, the only thing that seemed to matter to them was the grades. They said that if I had bad grades, I wouldn't have a proper job, a proper family. I hated them for that. I tried to find a way out. A way to not be with them, even it was only for half a day.  
You see, at Friday night's Bingo Time at Rangherd. They obviously fulfilled the old man's prototype, so they went to the City Saloon to play bingo every Friday night. That left me alone every night, and with the excuse of being afraid of robbers when I'm home alone, they agreed on letting me go to Aunt Mathilda and Uncle Philip's house at Star City.

Now there is no Star City.

I sat on my bed, unknown of all that wasn't outside my uncle's house. I didn't hear any noise downstairs, so I assumed they were out, maybe they had went to the café or something. I looked at the digital clock that was in my night table. It marked 10:04 am. Something was wrong.

My grandparents always picked me up at exactly 9 am. Always, with no exception. I didn't know what happened, so I tried to phone them. It would not even ring. I felt a gush of panic striking me. My stomach made a 360 inside my body.

I tried to calm down. Surely something had happened for them to be late. They had slept in. They had caught traffic in the way in. Something.

I tried to calm down. It was dark because the blinds were closed, so I got up and pressed the button on the remote control to pull them up. Aunt Mathilda worked on a computer factory as a design manager, as well as uncle Philip (that is how they met), so they pretty much liked to be actualized technologically speaking.

I waited for about five seconds for the blinds to fully go up.

When I saw Star City through the windows of my bedroom, my stomach didn't really do a 360, it kinda went to a rollercoaster after it had eaten too much and it just couldn't handle it. I threw up for the first time in many years, the first time being when a police officer came to the high school back at Rangherd and announced me that my mother had died in a chemical accident at the lab she worked. The lab had blown up, nobody knows how or why. It's a cold case now.

When I knew I had finished throwing up, I dared to look outside the window one more time.

Oh god.

Long story short: there was no Star. All I saw of the city was the pavement and ashes; lots and lots of ashes, even piles of them were large buildings like the Gill Corp. Tower and the National Bank stood. The ashes were surrounded by a weird fog. The sky was not on its normal daylight colors, but instead was red.

When I was about to turn away from the window, I saw two little points appearing in the distance from the shadow of an especially tall pile of ash. I didn't know what that was, but there was a chance that those points were people.

I quickly put on a coat that was on a chair over my pajamas and my slippers and hurried downstairs. The dots were getting closer, and now I knew they were people. A girl and a boy, it seemed. I opened the door to go outside and meet them.

Because of the fog, I thought outside would be cold, maybe even with negative temperatures, but as I stepped outside, a wave of heat took over my body. I immediately took my coat away and kept moving. The people were getting closer, but the girl screamed. I was getting really dizzy because of the heat, and I hadn't been outside for more than fifteen seconds. I started gasping for air, but there wasn't any to breathe. Soon I fell on the ground and started crawling towards the strangers, who were now running towards me. My vision turned red and my eyes started closing. I was choking.

The strangers came closer. I saw the guy raising his hand and I felt like I was floating. Then I hit a hard surface.

I opened my eyes and I saw that I was in my uncle's house. I started gasping for air and when I had my breathing more or less controlled, I saw the girl and the guy walking inside my house.

The girl was not that tall but she was almost the size of the guy. She had blonde hair tied in a ponytail and bright, blue eyes. In her back there was a quiver with some arrows and a brown bow. She was wearing a red t-shirt, like the ones at summer camps, which said "Camp Bellum" under an image of a temple crossed by a lightning bolt.

The guy had black hair and dark eyes. He was wearing a gray shirt, a scarf and black skinny jeans. His skin was olive, and he was very pale.

"Hi there," He said, in a much deeper voice than I thought he would have. "You better get up, don't you think?"

I got up, embarrassed and raised my hand.

"Hi. My name is Aidoneus. But you can call me Don. That's what most people do."

"Well, Don, you destroyed a city and murdered thousands of people, including your uncle and your aunt and, also, gigantic snake ladies are coming to kill us", the guy said. "But hey, my name's Frost. And this lady here is Lydia."

I felt sick again. What? _I _had burned this city to ashes? Haha. As far as I know, I'm not a secret agent or the leader of the Mafia.

"That's _so _not funny."

"The truth is not always amusing, right?" Lydia stated.

"We have no time to chit-chat. The dracanae are closer. Hey, Donny boy, you have everything you need for a summer camp?"

"Wait what? Draca-who?" I said, in exasperation. I didn't know what they were talking about. I only wanted to know WHAT HAPPENED TO STAR CITY AND WHERE WERE MY UNCLE AND MY AUNT.

"Thought so. Donny boy, we really have to go because…"

The front door exploded. Outside there were two creatures about nine feet, in every aspect like women but, instead of legs and feet, there were scaly tentacles. They were wielding a shield and a sword.

"THAT IS A DRACANAE", Lydia cried, as if I hadn't figured that yet.

Frost suddenly threw a knife at one of those creatures (that failed, by the way) and ran towards Lydia, that managed to scream a "what?!" as she and Frost disappeared into the ground.

"What" was the most adequate reaction to what just had happened. Two guys enter my uncle's house after all near civilization has vanished and then, not even five minutes later, two Killer Croc-like ladies blow up the door because they were too lazy to open it. But obviously the ladies weren't after Frost and Lydia, because they kept advancing towards me. I picked up a vase with daisies and threw it to the nearest dracanae, which she avoided easily. I ran up the stairs to my bedroom, seeing I had no other choice, and barricaded the door with the bookshelf.

I thought that maybe I could jump off the window, seeing I somehow survived longer falls before. But then again, I would be fried alive before the dracanae realized I was outside. I just didn't know how Lydia and Frost had survived the heat. Maybe they had some sort of special suit to protect them.

I heard the dracanae going up the stairs and I realized it was a matter of moments before I would be dead

_"Hold on, Don"_, someone said. But there wasn't anyone in my bedroom except me and oh god they're here. The dracanae started pounding on the door, and I wondered why they didn't just blow it up like they did downstairs.

I hid under my bed. They were so tall, they wouldn't notice me. But I realized that was a stupid idea, because they were not normal ladies and they might have x-ray vision or super smell. So I rolled to get under my bed, got up and faced the door, ready for anything whatsoever.

_"HEY, DOUCHE, WHERE ARE YOU?"_ I heard the voice again. I realized the voice was on my head, so I mentally pictured my bedroom and hoped the person (or whatever was that was talking to me) understood that was my bedroom.

Once the dracanae made the door go boom, I started walking backwards.

"Hey, hum, Ms. Dracanae, you know, maybe we don't have to recur to violence, maybe you two could just, err, tell me what you ladies want and maybe we could make a deal or something, that is, if you…"

"_WE WANTS YOU, DEMIGOD!"_ they both said, better, hissed, at the same time.

"Well, I'm sorry to tell you ladies, but that is something I can"t give you. So, hum, shoo!" I ordered, doing a "go away" gesture with my hands.

Surprisingly enough, both of them flew backwards, as if someone had given them a gigantic invisible sucker punch. They landed on the bathroom, knocking over the toilet, which was now dropping water all over the place. I ran there, to make sure they were unconscious, but somehow there was only a pile of dust where they were.

"Hey, Pluto, why didn't you answer me? And where are the dracanae?" shouted Frost, who had appeared behind me.

"They disappeared…now there's only this pile of dust. What happened?"

"It always happens when a monster is slain. Who killed them?"

"Well…me, I suppose"

Frost laughed.

"Don't laugh at me, douchebag!" I continued. "I just waved at them to go away and they flew here!"

Frost's expression hardened.

"Are you serious?"

"ARE _YOU _SERIOUS? IT'S JUST WHAT I TOLD YOU, DAMMIT!"

He stretched his hand.

"Here," he said, surprisingly calm. "Hold my hand"

"Are you…? Look, I like girls."

He rolled his eyes and took my hand. Immediately everything turned pitch-black and when I opened my eyes again, I was in a dark cavern. The ceiling was about twenty feet higher than us, and was made of glass. In the opening where we were, there was a large bed, a bookshelf, an open bathroom, a kitchen and a living room.

The walls were full of carvings, either just circles and loops or beautiful drawings of human-like creatures. This place was beautiful, even though I felt a little trapped in here.

"Is this where you…" I started to ask.

"Live? Yes. I am an exile. And I'm really sorry to introduce you to camp this way. But you'll have to ask me questions later. Shadow-travelling isn't easy, especially when you have to go four times across the country with another person. I'm exhausted. Now, just follow that corridor and you'll meet Lydia. She'll help you from there."

I didn't question him. I knew how it felt when you're really tired and people won't stop bugging you, so I walked towards the corridor. It was a long corridor, dimly lit by torches about every ten feet. As I walked through it, I heard the sound of water getting closer and closer, and it was also getting more illuminated. As I took the final curve of the corridor, I saw Lydia sitting on the corner, next to a waterfall. She got up when she saw me and hugged me. This was weird because no one who knew me for so little time ever hugged me.

"Don! Is everything fine?"

"Yeah. Actually, no. I'm still trying to digest everything that happened."

"You know, you may want to be all macho man next to my boyfriend but you can tell me what you're feeling to me. I… I've lost a lot of people in my life."

I realized I had a friend in Lydia. I never had a real friend in ten years of school.

"Hey, come on. Let's get out of here."

She turned at the waterfall and whistled. Immediately the water flux stopped and I could see a vast lake and a forest. She then took a look at the water below us and jumped. I leaned to see where she was and saw her on a boat, next to a dark haired dude. I jumped too.

The cold water touch was a surprise. I could swear I was going straight to the boat. But anyways, I tried to swim up, but I realized I couldn't. I never swam in my life, to be honest. My mom never let me.

I tried to shake my legs but I was only going down. Then suddenly something grabbed my ankle. I looked down to see what was grabbing me, but I couldn't see anything except darkness. The thing grabbing my ankle started pulling me down, and I was starting to drown.

Above me I heard the sound of someone entering the water and I saw the guy who was on the boat with Lydia swimming towards me at full speed. He grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the surface. When I emerged I gasped for air. The guy was already in the boat, dry as if he hadn't been in the water.

They helped me get inside the boat.

"THIS," I told them. "IS THE SECOND TIME SOMETHING WEIRD HAPPENS WITH NO APPARENT REASON AND IT IS NOT OKAY IN SOO. MANY. LEVELS."

"Try not to make so much noise," the guy said. "The hellhounds might wake up. Oh, and I'm Mark, by the way. Nice to save you."

He raised his hand to me, which I shook.

"Thanks, dude. I'm Don."

He nodded. "Hey, Lyd, where do you wanna go now?"

"We're going to the Common House, to see Fabius."

Mark touched the back of the boat and it started to drift towards the right margin of the lake.

"How do you do that?" I asked, amazed.

He looked at Lydia, who shook her head. "Let's just say I have special blood running through my veins."

We remained in silence until the boat hit the shore. We were surrounded by the forest in every way except forward, where a trail led to a large circle of the strangest lot of cabins.

"Well, I have to go to my cabin. My brothers said for me to hurry up, so yeah. See you later." Mark told us, then he walked away to the circle of houses. Lydia and I kept moving. We entered the forest and Lydia led me to a large clearing where there was a hill about twenty five feet tall, with a bunch of white marble stairs leading to a white and black mansion, with twelve pillars, lots of windows and massive oak doors.

"Come on," Lydia said. "Let's go visit Mr. Fab."

* * *

_(A/N: I really liked writing this chapter, especially the first part. I hope you liked reading it too haha. Next chapter the camp will be surprised with a horrible news that will kick off a dangerous quest, and Don will know the truth about his father-who do you think he is?)_

* * *

**NEXT CHAPTER: THE ANCIENT AND THE NEW**


	2. The Ancient and the New

**~►The Ancient and the New◄~**

When I entered the Common House, I was enveloped by the warmth you get when you finally enter your home after a long day.

The first room we came across after we stepped inside the House was the entrance hall, which was bigger than the apartment my mom and I lived in, at Rangherd. It was decorated with things that made no sense whatsoever: there was a fishing net next to a stuffed owl and a fake leopard next to a dark helmet. Our footsteps echoed in the marble floor as we walked across the hall into the next division: the audience room, as Lydia explained to me.

"This is where Fabius, the camp and activities director listens to complains. Most of them come from demigods but sometimes dryads have their satyr stalker and even water elves complain sometimes, though that is pretty rare. I think it only happened three times since Fabius opened the audience room."

"How many things has that guy inaugurated since he became the director?"

"Lots," Lydia said, grinning to me.

When we entered the throne room, light filled my eyes. There were enormous windows made out of stained glass, depicting war scenes I learned at school: I saw Hercules battling the Nemea Lion, Perseus and the Medusa and Theseus slaying the Minotaur; plus other scenes I did not recognize. The floor was made of granite; on the center of it there was a red carpet and on both sides of it there were iron pedestals with lit candles on them. On the back of the room, where the red carpet ended, there was a very majestic armchair, like the ones you see the pope sitting on, almost like a throne, sitting on a dais, with two wooden poles in either sides where two owls stood. On the armchair sat a guy curved forwards, with grey eyes and with his hands joined in front of his face and his thumbs holding the hands beneath his chin.

"Fabius. He's eighteen, FYI," Lydia informed in a whisper as we walked towards him.

"I don't really care?"

She sighed, with the hint of a smile on her face. When we got to the base of the dais, the guy got up and opened his arms, greeting us. He was wearing a roman toga, which I thought a little misplaced, even though I had no idea why.

"Hi! 'sup Lyd? Oh, and is that the Aidoneus kid?"

"In person," I said, and shook his hand.

"F," Lydia began. "As you see, I bought Don here, under the 5 hour deadline. He faced two rabid dracanae and, as Frost told me, "burned those bitches down to ashes with his own hands". I think he deserves an explanation."

"Explana—oh right, the video. Will you follow me kiddo?"

"Don't…call me…kiddo," I said, almost in distaste. "Nobody says kiddo, man"

"Ah, then," he blinked, almost in confusion. "Follow me if you will, Don."

I climbed up the dais and waved my hand and Lyd, who raised her own and smiled. Fabius and I started walking towards an open corridor behind the armchair, when suddenly he turned to me and said,

"Gods! I forgot to introduce you to my owls!"

"Yeah… What's up with them?"

"I'll explain later. But yeah, that one," he said pointing to the one on our left side. "Is Euphrosyne and the other one is Aglaia. Two of the three graces. They're hawk owls."

"Grace? What the—oh never mind. But what about the other one?"

"Thalia? She's my personal owl. An _athene noctua_. Pretty smart girl." He sighed. "Owls. Such intelligent life forms. Some people call them by their ancient name, you know? Birds of Minerva."

As he said this, I realized he looked kinda distant, as if he hadn't seen his parents for a long time. Some people just aren't made for Summer Camps.

He then restarted walking. He was about two years older than me, so his legs were much longer and his walking faster. We kept going through the corridor, which was really high and large and bright. It had carvings, sort of like the ones I'd seen at Frost's cave. Where the corridor ended, two high columns, with the same carvings, rose from the white marble floor. In front of us was a room, about twice the size of my living room, except that this room only contained a HDTV, a red couch and a small table with a glass of water. Fabius sat on the couch, and seeing I wasn't sitting, he said, "Tout suite! Sit down, boy; even though Silverstein said, quote, "We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow", thou hast no time to lose, alas!"

"Are you always like that or are you just showing off?" I challenged him. He paused for a second, as if thinking, and said, "Both, I fear; but do not despair/for I am your teacher""

"Um, no, thanks? You're kind of pissing me off, so move on, please"

I sat in the seat that was nearest to the glass of water, because whatever I was going to see in that TV, would probably shock me more because Fabius-was-older-thus-he-had-seen-it-thousands-of-times, or so I thought.

He waved his hand and the TV turned on, but the screen was white as chalk. "Saari, film number zero zero one, please," Fabius said.

"How many movies have you got?"

"Five hundred and seventy two. Most of them are educative, but there are some…"

"Okay. I don't really care?"

"I wouldn't tell you anyway," he said, with a hint of a grin on his face. "Saari, start the film, please."

The movie started with a burst of sound that nearly made me jump.

"DEMIGODS," the narrator started saying (more like screaming, actually) as space images of the planet showed up. "SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF MORTAL KINDRED AND GODS. BEEN AROUND THE PLANET ALPHA-KHI-PI,"

"Bless you," I said, half whispering, and Fabius laughed. ",ALSO AND BEST KNOWN AS EARTH BY ITS INHABITTANTS, SINCE THE BEGGINNING OF THE GREEK CULTURE. AND YOU ARE ONE OF THEM."

"Excuse me what the hell is going on oh god oh god," I breathed, but still not hyperventilating was difficult. From what I had seen and experienced today - the dracanae, Mark's ability to swim deep into the lake without even releasing a bubble, Frost's instant travelling... it wasn't a real shocker to hear that another urban myth was actually pretty damn true [even though I had never ever heard about dracanae in my whole existance]; the shock was in the fact that my mysterious dad was actually a God, immortal, invencible, so unlike me, who was bullied and cut himself when he was fourteen and...

"Shh, dude. Keep on watchin'. I know you are kind of freaked out right now, but it gets better."

"YOU WERE BLESSED WITH THE POWERS OF A GOD, WHICH YOU WILL SOON FIND OUT WHOM, AND THE MORTALITY OF A HUMAN. DO NOT DESPAIR. DESPAIR THOUGH, WITH MONSTERS."

"Positiveness. Check," Fabius observed, trying to diffuse the tension but failing miserably.

"MONSTERS GO FROM WEAK ONES, TO REALLY TOUGH ONES, WHICH ARE THE MAJORITY OF THEM. THEY CAN GO FROM MINOTAURS TO DRAGONS TO HYDRAS. AND THEN THERE ARE HARMLESS MONSTERS, SUCH AS SATYRS AND WATER ELVES (THEY ARE CREATURES IN DANGER OF EXTINTION THOUGH, BECAUSE OF THE VERY VALUABLE FRETAMLINE HORN THEY HAVE ON THE BACK OF THEIR NECKS.)"

I took a sip of water, because I felt as though as if I didn't I would pass out.

"YOU WILL BE NOW INTRODUCED TO THE REVELATION TECHNIQUE, TO FIND OUT WHO YOUR GODLY PARENT IS."

With this, the TV turned black, and Fabius got up, and so did I.

"How are you feeling, Don?"

"Kind of… fine, I suppose. I've already faced two dracanae, so the monster thingy wasn't really new to me, but yeah. But… is this a normal camp, or…?"

"Depends on your view of 'normal camp'. This is a camp for demigods and mythical beings, not only Greek, if you may, chased down by men and Giants or other hostile beasts. We house them in change of war support."

"You're at war?"

"You're always at war Don, even if it is with yourself. But literally speaking no, we are not- in fact, we haven't been at war since 2015, when we participated in the downfall of Gaea, with Chiron's army."

"I´ve got another question. So, in the video, it said that we are demigods, right?"

"Yeah"

"So, who is your godly parent?"

"Mine wa-is Athena. Goddess of wisdom, crafts and war. Lyd's is Apollo, god of music and the Sun, and Frost's… well, Frost is a son of the Big Three, which are, I suppose you want to know, Poseidon, Hades and Zeus. He is a son of Hades, the king of the Underworld and god of the dead and riches."

"Oh. I suppose that explains stuff. Can we start the ritual thingy, please?"

"Sure. Well, just sit on the table with me, if you will."

"What? What ta—oh. Okay,…?" The previous room, with the red couch and the table and the glass of water and the HDTV- gone. Now there was only a circular wooden table with candles (which were the only light source in that room) and a few chairs.

"Talking to spirits in free time?" I asked Fabius.

"I can't say I don't, but that is more of a cabin-thirteen thing. Sons of Hades, see?"

"The dead dude, yeah. But how did you do this?"

"The Hecate kids helped me out a bit. Restoration spell, or something. Basically, I just have to think of a scenery inside this room and, poof!, there you go."

"I want one of these, too"

"Dream on."

I recalled an Aerosmith concert I had seen on the Internet where they sang that song. It was my favorite song, once upon a time, pre-depression. I pushed the dark thoughts away from my mind and sat down on one chair. Fabius sat down on the one opposite of me.

"Now, this part is kinda dangerous. I'll speak to a minor god, Hyanne, and she'll tell me who is your godly parent. If you have one, of course."

"What if I don't?"

"I and some of my brothers will erase the thought of your relatives and you'll wake up with a whole new family in the morning, probably in another country."

"Okay"

"So, I'm gonna do and say strange things, but don't panic, and don't get up. Like, ever. Now, gimme your arm"

I nodded and stretched my arm. He quickly pulled my sleeve up and grabbed a silver knife he used to cut my arm, which unleashed a series of emotions and flashbacks from my Dark Days

(i cant help you don i fear you are a lost case)

(dont give up don we believe in you)

(hey you mutherfucker i heard you cut yourself you self whining bitch you're so fucking selfish people with worst lives than you dont do it you wretched punk)

(sorry don but if you kill yourself dont tell me I didnt warn you)

as I like to call them.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING I NEVER AGREED ON THIS, DUDE!" I screamed, and realized my voice came out cracked, and I tried to hold back the tears forming in my eyes.

"Calm down. Gosh! Demigods these days, so impatient!" Fabius complained, still holding the knife, obviously ignorant about my early life.

He then took the knife and put the dripping blood in a flask.

"Now the fun begins," he announced, and closed his eyes. I couldn't see his lips moving but I could hear some of the words he said, though I understood about 0,001% of them (he said my name once, hence the 1). When he finally opened his eyes, after about half minute, his eyes weren't grey anymore, but vivid yellow.

"Hello," someone said through the mouth of Fabius. "I am Hyanne. Goddess of clarification."

"'Sup, Hyanne?"

"Shut the heck up, Don. Like, please," said the real Fabius.

"Ugh. Okay.

"Hello, goddess Hyanne. Nice to meet you."

"Identification, please."

"I'm Aidoneus Crasper. Fifteen and three quarters years old. I was born 25th August 2009. Son of Margareth Berm and Unknown."

"Identification received. Please wait a second while I search the records.

"Um, I don't see no Aidoneus Crasper. Maybe you have another name, or…"

Silence.

"Ms. Hyanne? Ms. Hyanne!"

"Oh gods oh gods oh gods. I made a terrible mistake, Aidoneus. Terrible indeed. So -"

Silence. Again.

And with a deep grasp for air, Fabius came to himself again, his eyes grey as ever. He leaned over to his side and puked.

"Chiron…need…talk…now…Lyd…get her"

"Get Lydia?" I asked, confused whether "Chiron" needed to talk with Lydia or if "Chiron" needed to talk, or what.

Fab nodded, so I ran to the exit and went full-Usain Bolt to the throne room, where Lydia stood, feeding a small owl.

"Hey, Don! Do you know who-"

"No, no time for that now. Fabius asked for you, like right now. Come."

I grabbed her by the hand and jerked her forwards, and we ran down the corridor to the illusion room, where Fab still puked.

"Fabius! You okay?" Lydia asked, as she ran next to him and helped him stand straight. As she did this, he whispered something to her ear, and she nodded.

Then she turned to me, her blonde hair flying to her back, her blue eyes with a hint of salt-water but with a fierce look.

"Go away. Now," she said, almost roaring, her eyes glistening. I could swear she emitted light at that moment, but then she added, "Please," with her voice cracking, and I exited the room.

What had happened there?

Hyanne…

(I made a terrible mistake, Aidoneus) what mistake has she made?

And Fabius… saying something about a Chiron… who has he?

I tried to remember school. I had never talked about a Chiron at History classes, but then again…

(your son is never attentive in History classes, preferring to draw imaginary things rather than paying attention.)

(they're not my fucking parents)

(I don't know what you're trying to become, Don, but if you keep like this you'll end up on the streets.)

…I never really cared for them.

Chiron. The name invoked upon me a remote sense of familiarity, as if he was my old nursery buddy, but I never even went to nursery school.

"Chiron, I know it's dangerous"

"Listen to yourself, fool boy! You are talking about my half-brother as if he were a monster! The boy is a he, idiot!"

Chiron. Someone was talking to Chiron, inside there. My opportunity was at the reach of a door, I could just turn the doorknob and enter and talk to the one whom I knew the littlest, but questioned the most.

I was about to open the door when I stopped. Lyd had told me not to go inside. My body wanted to go inside. Maybe I would be sent outside again. Maybe I would be kicked out of the camp because I was breaking strict orders from the vice-director or something. Maybe I wouldn't.

But I decided not to risk it.

Later, I would find my option nor intelligent nor dumb, but then I didn't really thought of what could happen. I removed my hand from the doorknob and turned my back against the door. Then I started walking through the corridor until I reached the throne room. Euphrosyne and Aglaia weren't there anymore. I figured out they went to sleep; instead there was a very small owl, white-speckled brown, with a large head, long legs and white eyebrows sitting on top of the throne, its eyes closed.

Thalia.

When I walked near the throne, it opened its yellow eyes and looked straight into mine, as if it was looking right into my soul.

"She's very beautiful," said a voice behind me. "Isn't she?"

I turned around to see who was there and I was quite surprised when I saw that it was not a camper, but a beautiful lady, short and slender, with shallow, dark skin, long, straight gold hair and eyes of the color of dark rubies. She was wearing grey ragged clothes splashed with blue.

"Artemis?" I asked, because I didn't know what to say. And she laughed.

"That one is long dead. I am Idaezla, goddess of protection, fate, charisma and famine, straight from the pagan pantheon."

"Dead?! What do you mean by dead?" I asked, perplexed. The gods are immortal. The man on the TV had said that. How could a goddess be dead?"

"Boy, you really are stupider than you seem. What I mean is that she's dead, like your mother. The Greeks are dead for a long time. Even Fabius knows that."

"You're not a goddess. You're a sham!"

Her ruby eyes turned to black and her smile into a frown. She seemed to grow. She raised her hand and suddenly my stomach growled and I felt immense pain and hunger, and I fell to the ground; I couldn't breathe. I wanted to puke but nothing would come out of my mouth, which was dry as if I hadn't drunk for one week.

"I'm a fake, is it?" She said, and my vision started to blur as I lay on the ground, she standing above me, with a faint smile in her face.

"Please," I whispered, when I felt I couldn't hold any longer.

Then the pain and the hunger stopped. My mouth wasn't dry anymore, and I could see clearly as ever.

"I have been around since ever. I have lived in Africa for the last 50 years. I have caused several plagues and diseases through the years. I am not a fake, and if you say so, you are only fooling yourself."

"Shut up. Just shut the hell up," I muttered between my teeth.

"Why so? We only met ten minutes ago, Don. Are you tired of me already?"

"I never liked you, bitch," and with that I raised my hand, making the goddess fly and crash into the white marble wall, leaving a crack. Her eyes turned red, and she cried "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

I kept my hand raised, and made the goddess go up against the wall. Her clothes were tearing as she flew up the wall. "Let…me…go," she pronounced, and I let the pressure in my hands go. She fell to the ground where she lay, her red eyes staring at me.

"You piece of scum, wretched kid, I'll show you…" She said as she tried to get up, only to be forced to go up five meters and fall. This time, she didn't try to get up.

I felt, then, my eyes rolling inside my skull; I couldn't see anything. But when I regained my vision, I saw things with immense shadow, and only black and white.

I sensed immense fear in Idaezla, horror, I reckon. And I felt a great wave of disgust and hatred rolling in, so my left hand raised itself, fingers in a claw gesture, and I concentrated all my rage in it. Her body started twitching, as her dark skin turned white.

Her skin flashed, as if a spark had been set inside her, and she levitated about one centimeter above the ground. Her head tilted backwards and her eyes turned white, as she opened her mouth in a noiseless scream. Her skin started cracking, and when the little pieces fell like leaves, the place where it had been would incinerate.

Something inside me wanted it to stop: what was I doing?

But I couldn't lower my hand_. I didn't want to lower my hand_.

When the skin stopped falling, there was no Idaezla; no dark skin, no ruby eyes, no ragged clothes. Only a hollowed mannequin, which instead of being made of plastic, was made of fire and burnt skin. It was disgusting. After about ten seconds, the flames suddenly stopped, turning it into a cracked black shape. Between the cracks there came rays of light, and it shone so bright I had to close my eyes. When the light stopped and I opened my eyes, there was only a pile of golden ashes where Idaezla stood.

I stepped back to see what I had done. I had lost my temper. I had killed a god. My head burst into flames and so did my stomach. I tried to run, but I couldn't.

you will not be forgotten. i will remember you.

A white noise filled my head. I started walking, as if I was drunk, through the throne room, through the corridor, until I finally reached the illusion room. My head still hurt, and I couldn't walk properly. I still heard the voices from inside

(Chiron, we've talked about this for almost half an hour, and we've told you: the box is lost!)

(Use your head, boy! If gods are real, so are tales!)

,but I had to get in.

I opened the door to the illusion room and entered.

It was different: wooden planks covered the floor, the walls and the ceiling. There was a white sofa in the middle of the room, a bookshelf on the left wall and a drawer on the right one. On the far end of the room, there was a small pond, which seemed unfitting. In the ceiling, five meters above me, there was a chandelier, which filled the room with a blue-ish light.

Sitting in the couch, backs turned against me, there was Fabius and Lydia, and looking straight at me from what looked like a cloud, Chiron, I presumed.

"Seems we have a visitor," said he, in a far deeper voice than I expected. Lyd and Fabius turned around to see me, but they were neither upset for me breaking in nor happy. More like, sad for me. "Sit, boy, we were just talking about -"

"We have no time," I cut firmly. "Sorry Chiron, but I think a god just died"

They all rose, with scared looks in their faces. "Are you sure, Don?" Lyd asked.

"Yeah…I mean, sort of. I… I was standing outside the door and I heard a noise. When I got there I saw… I saw a guy…killing a woman. She…her skin fell and then she was fiery, it was awful…" What had come out of my mouth? There had been no one but me and her, and I've killed her. Lying was just a quick lane with a dead end.

"Did you see who killed her?"

"No…he was standing with his back against me. He wore a cloak. A dark cloak to his ankles"

Fabius turned his head to Chiron, who nodded slightly.

"It is happening again," Fabius declared.

"Let us not jump into rushed conclusions, boy," Chiron remarked. "We need to see the body. Do you know the name of the lady?"

"I…I think she said her name was Idaezla"

Lydia and Fabius's faces turned white. I think I heard him mutter 'oh gods' repeatedly. Even Chiron was worried.

"The goddess of protection…dead? Our defenses! Any monster can get into camp now," Lydia cried.

"Come on. We need to go"

Then Fabius got up, and so did Lydia. They began to walk towards the door, with Chiron following them in his cloud. I went after them.

When we arrived, the ashes were still there, but Thalia wasn't. I figured it must've gone hunting.

Near the eastern wall, there was the pile of gold ashes, now a little scattered because of the breeze coming from the corridor. The fires in the candles weren't lit anymore; and the room was almost covered in darkness.

Lydia quickly got to where the ashes were, and bowed down to touch them with her right hand. She stood in that position for about five seconds before she got up, shaking her head.

"It was Idaezla. Once upon a time, y'know. Now, this is all that's left of her," Lyd stated, and Fabius nodded, and Lydia nodded, and I figured I should nod too, even though I had killed Idaezla - but it was not entirely my fault was it? She helped a little bit too.

"What about the pagan pantheon?" Fabius asked, his hand stroking his chin, his grey eyes shining in the almost darkness.

"Nothing on her. They…they're saying they haven't seen her since the Winter Solstice. They look really grave, though. And I reckon it's not really about that goddess. They never really liked her."

"What about Hyanne?" I suddenly asked, making both heads turn to me.

"Same question to you - what _about _Hyanne?" Fabius asked, frowning.

"Well… before you became you back then, she said she had made a big mistake. Something terrible. And well, if you can do it, why not ask about her too?"

"I suppose I could try," Lyd answered.

"Do it, Lydia. I need to prove something. _We_ need to prove something," Fabius supported me.

"Okay."

Lydia nodded and closed her eyes.

"I won't even bother talking with the Negians. I know she's not there."

"But Hyanne was Negian, Lydia," Fabius said.

"I _know_. But there's no one in that pantheon. They were imprisoned, remember?"

"Umm, sorry, what?" I asked. I wasn't understanding anything in that conversation.

"Tomorrow, Don."

"Whatever."

"Anyways," Lydia resumed. "She's not in the Negian pantheon. There's only Svev there, and I did not dare talk to her. I don't really think gods of infidelity are to be trusted."

"What about Olympus?"

"I'm going there. Though I don't feel comfortable around there. I've had too much of wastelands in my life."

"Less talk and more action, Lydia. We need to be sure that Don's father is… Him."

"Sure. Sorry 'bout that.

"But it seems to me that she isn't in Olympus. I could ask, but… I… I don't feel good around the Maddened."

Suddenly Fabius walked away and entered the tunnel. He seemed pretty upset, but I didn't know why.

"FABIUS! I'M SORRY! I… I didn't mean to say it," Lydia said, her voice cracking, her eyes filled with water. She sat down on the floor and started crying.

"Hey, hey Lydia. What's wrong?" I asked, sitting next to her. I put my arms around her and hugged her tight.

"You know… the Negians?"

I shook my head and she nodded.

"They are pagan Gods. They were here since ever, since the Creation. But they only gained recognition about 150 before revolution, when their god of assassination, death and plague, Rirturg, formed a secret order, with the objective of killing every other god. They were known as the Ceers.

"They started with six members, and then more gods joined them. They started killing gods, first small ones, then bigger ones. Some of them couldn't handle it and quit. Those were killed. Some were imprisoned, like their god of Creation, Lezum. Once they got so greedy, they tried to kill Buddha, but they were caught in an ambush and were locked down in the Bahmish, the Buddhist prision for gods. The only ones who survived were the original six. Their location is unknown."

"What does it have to do with the Maddened? Whoever they are?"

"One of the Ceer's biggest accomplishments were to have destroyed the Hellenistic religion. They managed to enter Olympus and kill most of the gods. The remaining part of them, some of the Twelve, became mad with grief. They are called the Maddened. Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, Athena, Aphrodite and Ares. My dad died that day. But I have come through it. Fabius… his mom is alive, but I think that that fact is harder on him than if she had died. If you know what I mean?"

I nodded. I couldn't really say anything; I didn't know my god dad. I didn't know if he was alive or if he was dead.

"But… what about Hyanne?"

She looked to her left, as if gaining courage to say something.

"She died. Long ago. Five, six years ago."

"WHAT?!"

"The person Fabius is talking to… it's not her. I talked to her too, whoever she is. But I've also talked to Hyanne before. And I don't feel like their presence is the same."

"So, you're saying there's someone pretending he's Hyanne?"

"Yes, definitely. And I've been… ah, forget it."

"Tell me!" I said, bumping her friendly, which made her smile.

"Tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay."

"Okay." She said, standing up. "Now, I better go and apologize to Fabius."

"Wait," I said, standing up too. "Do you know? Who my dad is?"

"I do. But it's complicated. We'll talk tomo…"

"Please. I need to know. Now."

She stood up straight for a little while, thinking. "Come with me. Fabius might help you."

We walked back into the Illusion Room, but we didn't have to go all the way there. Fabius was sitting at one side of the corridor, his hands holding his knees, his eyes red from crying.

Lydia knelt next to him.

"I'm sorry, Fabius. But it's been like, five years! Can't you get over it?"

"Get over it?! How am I supposed to get over it when my MOM IS ALIVE AND I CAN HEAR HER EVERY FUCKING DAY REPEATING THE SAME THINGS OVER AND OVER AGAIN, LYDIA!"

"I'm sorry"

"WELL I'M SORRY THAT YOU ONLY MADE THINGS WORSE!"

"I TRIED, okay? I tried. And I got over it. Don't be a fucking child and try to forget it."

"WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU? 'AVENGE ME'. THAT'S ALL SHE SAYS, AND I CAN HEAR HER IN. MY. BRAIN."

"SHUT UP!" I kicked in. "Stop discussing the parents _you _know. There's someone in here who wants to know his own, and has been waiting for the past fifteen years, god dammit!"

"Uranus, okay? Your daddy is Uranus."

* * *

_(A/N: This chapter was supposed to be waaaaaay smaller; there wasn't supposed to be an Idaezla, nor Negians, nor Fake Hyanne; it was supposed to only feature Don getting the announcement that he was the son of Uranus. But I'm glad it didn't went that way.)_

* * *

**NEXT CHAPTER: "AGE"**


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